Budge it

[j4]

I don't know what to do about budgeting for food. sion_a and I have been sharing evening meals, and basically he's been paying for pretty much everything, which is clearly unfair; but when I suggested trying to allocate a set amount for food he was unhappy about the idea & said he'd prefer to go back to the way we used to do it -- on a completely ad hoc basis, buying food roughly once a week but often more, and sort of taking turns to pay. I can understand why he wouldn't want to do that -- there's no reason why he should have to go without everything he wants just because I'm skint -- but I don't think I can cope with that kind of system and still claw my finances back to a sensible point.

On the other hand, I have no idea how to budget for feeding just one person, because more or less ever since I've lived out I've been sponging off one boyfriend or another, and cooking for at least two people. Basically I'm just not used to living a single life, but it's about time I learned.

How much do people think is a sensible amount of money to allocate for a week's food (lunches and evening meals) for one?

For ages I've been eating at the pub on Thursdays with the rest of the crowd -- is it stupid to try to build that into a budget? (The pub food isn't expensive, but it's still eating-out rather than eating-in. Last night's meal cost £3.25, and that's not quite the cheapest option.)


So far this week I have spent the following:

£ 1.19   5 avocados and 2 bananas
£ 0.99   1 bag of new potatoes
£ 3.25   meal at the pub
£ 2.40   1 pint of beer
£15.00   karate lesson

The potatoes and avocados between them have made lots of salads for lunches. I feel like I've been reasonably good about money, but the evening meals have mostly been covered by stuff that sion_a's bought, so really I'm just sponging still. :-(

Bank balance is looking more healthy, but there's still £86 owed to a friend to come out of that -- and no, I can't pay back in instalments, I just want to clear the debt in one go -- and money for a birthday present for somebody else. Salary comes through in less than a week now, but I know I mustn't see that as the point when I can start spending money again!

Food tonight is sorted: I'm working a shift at the pub so I'll have my usual sandwich or bowl of chips. And more money! Hurrah.

Comments

[juliet]

Why? If you've got it, and you enjoy spending it, and it's not causing you financial problems, why shouldn't you spend as much as you like on food?

For myself, I think by now I'd *resent* spending money on sandwiches from a shop, even if I could afford them, because I know how much more cheaply I can do it myself, and in general I find the sandwiches I make for myself much nicer than the ones you get in shops (if I wind up at work without lunch, which happens occasionally usually due to incompetent grocery-shopping, I tend to go buy bread & hummous from Sainsburys, which still works out cheaper than most shop-sandwiches). But if it doesn't bother you, then that's fine - it's your lunch & your money, after all!

[angoel.livejournal.com]

I think by now I'd *resent* spending money on sandwiches from a shop, even if I could afford them, because I know how much more cheaply I can do it myself, and in general I find the sandwiches I make for myself much nicer than the ones you get in shops.

I found that shop-bought sandwiches were about the same price. This is mainly because I live on my own, and only need about three days worth of sandwiches per week and thus loaves, lettuce, etc bought for making sandwiches invariably went stale or dodgy looking before that time was up. Similarly, it's horribly uneconomical to get a plausible variety of fillings. And I invariably went for intriguing nice sounding things when buying ingredients which ended up costing more than about a week's worth of sandwiches. (Ooh. Himalian Mountain Goats cheese. Want.)

[juliet]

Ah, buying expensive ingredients will take the price up, yes :-)

Depends what you put in them as to whether things go off, & whether you can get a variety of fillings. The things I most often put in sandwiches are hummous, carrot & lentil pate, & refried beans, all of which I make myself (& Marmite, because too often I'm lazy about making the stuff, but that's a different matter...). In fact, I tend to make & eat one at a time, & not be desperately bothered about eating the same thing for a week; but in theory, I think all of those are freezable (so half of each could be frozen for the following week), & all will last a week in the fridge. Back-of-envelope calculation indicates that that works out at around £4 for 2 weeks, plus bread at about 80-90p/week depending on which type & from where (or about 10p if you'll eat economy white, which I won't).

Mind you, it probably helps that I *hate* lettuce & similar salad-type things that are more inclined to go off :-) (except for rocket, which comes from the garden). And that I am reasonably happy to eat Marmite sandwiches on a regular basis when I've been too incompetent to remember to construct alternative fillings (though hummous at least is pretty easy to make).

Curses, now I'm *hungry* again, & I've only just eaten my pasta salad...

[j4.livejournal.com]

Do you have recipes for the hummous, carrot & lentil pâté, and the refried beans? They sound good. (If you've already given me these recipes then sorry for being crap & disorganised...)

Part of the problem with the make-lots-of-stuff-in-advance strategy has been that I'm busy most weekends; but that's less likely to be the case for the foreseeable. And they sound like the sort of things that will keep reasonably well even without freezing large quantities.

Oh and I'm quite happy to eat economy white bread. :)

[juliet]

All at the pate page on Kake's cookery website - might be worth looking at some of the others there, as well.

Note: if you make the hummous with fresh garlic, leave it in the fridge overnight before attempting to use it, otherwise it'll taste very fresh-garlic-y. I add olive oil, as well, to make it a bit less solid (or you can just add a little water). The refried beans & carrotlentilstuff are both very very good mmmm....

IME they keep fine in the fridge for at least a week, often 2. The hummous is pretty quick to make; the others don't actually require much time *doing* stuff, but do need to be left to cook for a bit.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Oh, I thought you meant (hummous and carrot and lentil pate) rather than hummous and (carrot and lentil pate). Sorry, parse error. :) Have made hummous before, it's nice, & seems to keep for a lot longer than the bought stuff, bizarrely. But it does take ages if you take the hulls off the chick peas! Might try not bothering, it'll probably just be more 'rustic' (lumpy).

The refried beans look like A Good Thing(tm), kidney beans are v cheap and I like them a lot. Mmmm.

Thank you!

[juliet]

Ah, right. Hmm, am tempted to try that now... [cogitates]

Refried beans are *ace*. As, in fact, is the carrotlentilstuff, although I acknowledge it doesn't sound like much (it's also *very* cheap). One of those things that I make & bring to picnics, & everyone goes 'hmm weird vegan shit', & I say 'oh go on, try it'. And they *do* and suddenly it's ALL GONE & they're asking for the recipe. In future I shall just say 'yeah, weird vegan shit, you wouldn't like it, it's all KNITTED TOFU you know'.

I like dehulling chickpeas (in the method as recommended by Kake, with the bowl of water). I think it catches my slightly-compulsive side.

Mmm food. Did I say that already?

[j4.livejournal.com]

I find the long-life sliced bread lasts for well over a week without going noticeably stale, but obviously if what you want is big fancy fresh-baked loaves then you can't get long-life variants of those! (Me, I'm happy with boring white sliced.)

Never seen the point of lettuce in sandwiches -- utterly tasteless vegetable which just makes the bread go soggy.

[aendr.livejournal.com]

How odd, we differ, I find lettuce prevents my tomatoes from making the bread go soggy.